To Be Loved // Masters of the Air

23: One Last Plane Ride

"Your primary target is Münster. Your aiming point and mean point of impact is the railroad and marshaling yards. The target is just east of the city center." Bowman stands at the top of the stage in front of you, continuing to explain what the mission entailed for all of you at hand as you sat yourself beside Egan with Biddick on your left. The room had been swallowed up into darkness aside from the opaque projector that would switch from one slide to the next as murmurs began around the room.

You were surprised to say the least. How your target had been so close to the city, filled to the brim with innocent bystanders. Egan's focus fixated towards Bowman the entire time as he watched him explain the mission's parameters. A target near the city center, a shocking realization in which this time around it wasn't just some isolated airfield or an abandoned city in the middle of nowhere. This time, it was a major railroad intersection. Not the kind that had been like for the last of your missions, who knew it would be so different.

Yet even still, Egan pays close attention to every word that Bowman relayed back to you about the mission. No one wanted to leave themselves open to any surprises. When Bowman shushes everybody down, the room falls into utter silence.

"So, accuracy on this mission is paramount. Intelligence reports that most of the housing in the adjacent neighborhoods are railroad workers. So, if they're hit, then we'll be hitting the men who keep the German railroads running."

Hearing how you had to kill innocents made you feel sick to your stomach, a bitter taste left on your tongue from Bowman's words. Your job was to kill Krauts, not innocents. It was inevitable what you told yourself, eventually this was going to happen. If you didn't strike this target, then that means the Germans would win, keeping their war efforts well built for any new push that the allies would try.

The lights turn back on as Bowman finishes speaking, allowing everyone to see the better view of the map against the wall. "95th is leading with us in the low, and the 390th in the high."

Huffing out a quiet sigh of relief as you hear his words, you were thankful that you weren't fully alone and the 390th would be flying with you. That was the greater part of this news, knowing it would be a short mission and less time in the air to be exposed to the danger of Germans perchance lurking in the clouds. It brought reassurance aside from the hidden fear you kept locked away that deep down you knew things weren't that simple.

"Bad news. We can only muster seventeen ships..a few which weren't even ours two days ago." That's what hit you and the rest of the men then as the anxious murmurs began once more, the factor of only having seventeen ships that could lead to a death wish.

The growing worry between the other airmen and the anxiety growing within yourself. All you could do was listen to the whispers from the men, your mind filled with scenarios about how all of this would go down and how your endings would be cut short. With a clearing of his throat, Harding brings the attention back to him, looking down to all of you. "That's the mission, boys. Disrupt industrial transportation in the Ruhr Valley."

Egan watches your expression with his heart sinking to his stomach, noticing your own anxiety which only worries his own. Watching your face fall into your hands with a dreadful expression that he's seen hundreds of times already before.

"Understood?" Harding's voice echoes through the rows of chairs, multiple rounds of yes sir's leading after his command, including your own as you snapped back to reality. You didn't know where this mission would lead you now knowing that you had less people to help than what you bargained for. One thing Egan knew for certain, it was back home or in the grave.